Posted on 04/23/2012 4:16:38 AM PDT by 1010RD
Call it President Obama’s Committee for the Re-Election of the President — a political slush fund at the Health and Human Services Department.
Only this isn’t some little fund from shadowy private sources; this is taxpayer money, redirected to help Obama win another term. A massive amount of it, too — $8.3 billion. Yes, that’s billion, with a B.
Here is how it works.
The most oppressive aspects of the ObamaCare law don’t kick in until after the 2012 election, when the president will no longer be answerable to voters. More “flexibility,” he recently explained to the Russians.
But certain voters would surely notice one highly painful part of the law before then — namely, the way it guts the popular Medicare Advantage program.
For years, 12 million seniors have relied on these policies, a more market-oriented alternative to traditional Medicare, without the aggravating gaps in coverage.
But as part of its hundreds of billions in Medicare cuts, the Obama one-size-fits-all plan slashes reimbursement rates for Medicare Advantage starting next year — herding many seniors back into the government-run program.
Under federal “open-enrollment” guidelines, seniors must pick their Medicare coverage program for next year by the end of this year — which means they should be finding out before Election Day.
[SNIP]
Making matters even more politically dangerous for Obama is that open enrollment begins Oct. 15, less than three weeks before voters go to the polls.
It’s hard to imagine a bigger electoral disaster for a president than seniors in crucial states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio discovering that he’s taken away their beloved Medicare Advantage just weeks before an election.
This political ticking time bomb could become the biggest “October Surprise” in US political history.
[More at site]
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
He’s out of Cook County, IL. This is their type of trick. They breed ‘em extra dumb there.
While we’re at it, nuke the AARP too as they were all for Obamacare from the start.
Oh, and I live at 211 Pine St., Mayfield, OH. with my sons Theodore and Walter.
Which only shows they are more an insurance exchange than an advocate for seniors.
This entire administration is a house of cards waiting to fall.
It is simply a matter if it falls before the vote.
Maybe that's why Obama or someone in the Admin said overturning Obamacare wouldn't hurt his reelection chances. He knew he had an ace up his sleeve either way.
It can be argued that taking away Medicare is more than a political hazard to Obama. It can be argued that to do so would become a physical or even mortal hazard.
The proverbial straw, the bridge too far
Depends on how many advanced secret service have to go their and what their expenses are.
In Chicago politics, leading up to an election, this kind of payoff is called “walkin’ around money”. You can take the thug politician out of Chicago, but you can’t take the Chicago thug tactics out of the thug politician.
Every entity that I have known that has sought an ISO rating has ultimately regretted the time wasted, and the expense of the venture. NOT worth it in the long run I have heard time, and again.
The lab in which I work has decided to try to get an ‘ISO’ designation.... That horsepukey has been around even before O’Dummy. I’m not positive, but I think Bush the Elder. It stifles creativity and brings everyone on-line throughout the world (except third world countries, preferred countries and those who have paid off {who?}. It is sort of like JCAHO with Hospitals. You pay megabucks to an outsider to get accreditation to tell you you fail and need millions of bucks to get up to snuff. As though the gubbmint wouldn’t.
My Dec 20, 2009 Letter to the Editor of the Charlotte Observer:
Has Anyone READ this bill?
Section 3209 of the Senate Health Care Bill allows the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to bar senior citizens from purchasing private fee-for-service Medicare Advantage plans.
The bill also provides for a 15-member unelected “Independent Medicare Advisory Board,” given the task of ensuring Medicare expenditures meet budget goals. Should Medicare growth rates exceed these goals, the Board is required to act to reduce the shortfall.
Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services would contract with an “entity” that is to “develop and identify consensus-based standards to evaluate patient decision aids for preference sensitive care. Grants and contracts would be awarded to develop these “patient decision aids”.
So we can’t pay for care we deem necessary and the government will spend tax dollars on grants to develop aids to convince us we are too old to want such care.
I get tons of stuff from AARP because of my long-ago canceled membership...it all goes in the trash.. ....except for all those prepaid mailing permit envelopes. I send those in....empty, thereby transferring money from the unworthy AARP to the (slightly) more worthy Post Office. It's my my own personal Post Office bailout operation, all without taxpayer funding.
I get tons of stuff from AARP because of my long-ago canceled membership...it all goes in the trash..
....except for all those prepaid mailing permit envelopes. I send those in....empty, thereby transferring money from the unworthy AARP to the (slightly) more worthy Post Office. It's my my own personal Post Office bailout operation, all without taxpayer funding.
Not sure if it is related, but they are currently holding a number of “public information meetings” in various communities around here to preach the “benefits” of the Obamacare law. That’s right, still with the sales job even now.
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